Your Google Business Profile is the listing that shows up on Google Maps and in the short list of local businesses above the ordinary search results. My local SEO guide explains why it matters. This post is the walkthrough: where to click, what to put in each box, and what gets a profile suspended.
Every step comes from Google's Business Profile Help pages as they read in October 2026. Google renames buttons now and then; if a menu doesn't match, the linked page has the current wording. It's all free: Google says you can add or claim your business "at no charge" (Google).
Before you start
Check that your business qualifies. Google says a business "must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours" (Google's eligibility guidelines). A shop people walk into qualifies, and so does a plumber who drives to them. Online-only businesses, rental properties and businesses whose address is a P.O. box don't.
Use a Google Account you control. You need one to sign up, and it can use any email address, not only Gmail (Google).
Know which kind of business you are. Google sorts businesses three ways (Google):
- Storefront: customers come to you, at an address with permanent signage.
- Service-area: you go to your customers and don't serve them at your address, like a house cleaner or a plumber.
- Hybrid: both, like a restaurant that also delivers.
Setting up your profile, step by step
1. Look for a profile that already exists
Your business may already be on Google Maps even if you never listed it. Search Maps for your business's name and town before you create anything: Google wants one profile per business, and a duplicate "can cause problems with how your information displays" (Google's guidelines).
What you find decides the next move (Google):
- Nothing: go to step 2.
- A profile nobody has verified: claim it. On a computer, open Google Maps, search for your business's name and city, select Claim this business, then Manage now, and go to step 3.
- A profile someone else verified, say a former employee or an old marketing company: request ownership. Go to business.google.com/add, enter your business's name and address, and pick it. When you see "Someone else may manage this Business Profile," select Request Access and fill in the form. The current owner gets an email and has three days to respond. If they don't, you may get the option to claim it yourself (Google). A service-area business with no shop or office contacts Google support instead.
2. Create the profile
Go to business.google.com/add, click Add your business to Google, and follow the on-screen steps (Google). Three choices matter most.
Your name. Enter it the way it appears on your sign, your website and your stationery (Google's guidelines). Google's list of what a name must not include is longer than most people expect: taglines, store codes, ® and ™ signs, words in all capitals, hours, phone numbers, web addresses, services, products and locations. Legal terms like LLC are out too, unless your signage or invoices consistently use them. Google's own example: "Midas Auto Service Experts" is not acceptable; "Midas" is. Extra words in the name "could result in the suspension of your Business Profile."
Your category. Pick the most specific one on Google's list for your main business: "Nail salon" rather than "Salon," in Google's example (Google). It should complete the sentence "This business IS a," not "this business HAS a" (Google's guidelines). You can add up to nine more (Google), but Google asks for as few as possible.
Your location. A storefront enters its full street address, with any suite number on the second address line. A service-area business turns off Show business address to customers (Google) and lists the cities, ZIP codes or other areas it serves instead: up to 20 of them, with the whole area no more than about two hours' drive from where you're based (Google). A hybrid business shows its address and sets a service area too. Some addresses don't qualify at all: a P.O. box, a rented mailing address you don't work from (a "virtual office"), or a co-working desk without your own signage, staff and customers (Google's guidelines).
3. Verify the profile
Until Google verifies you, you can edit only some of your details, and your photos won't show on Google (Google; photos).
You don't choose the method. Google says the options "are automatically determined by Google and can’t be changed," and some businesses need more than one (Google). You'll find yours under Get verified on your profile:
- Phone or text. Google calls or texts a code to your business number. An automated phone menu won't get it, so the number has to reach a person or a phone that takes texts.
- Email. You follow the steps in an email sent to the address on the verification screen.
- Video recording. Google recommends this one if it's offered. On a phone or tablet, you record at least 30 seconds in one unedited take showing where you are (street signs, nearby businesses), that the business exists (your sign, matching your profile's name, or a service-area business's tools), and that you run it (opening the register, unlocking a branded van). Keep other people's faces out of it (Google).
- Live video call. The same kind of showing, live with a Google support representative, during your business hours.
- Postcard. Google mails a code to your address. Most codes arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. While you wait, don't edit your name, address or category, and don't request another code: either one stops the code in the mail from working. Google says it will never ask you for the code, so don't give it to anyone.
When you're done, Google's review takes up to five business days, occasionally longer, and you'll get an email when you're verified.
4. Fill in everything else
Go to your Business Profile and select Edit profile (Google). On a phone, open the Google Maps app and tap Business, then Edit profile.
- Hours. Under Edit profile > Hours, set your regular hours (Google). For holidays and closures of six days or fewer, use Special hours; Google suggests confirming holiday hours even when they're the same as usual (Google). If you work only by appointment, Google says not to list hours at all (Google's guidelines).
- Phone. A local number under your direct control, not one that forwards callers somewhere else (Google's guidelines). You can add up to two more (Google).
- Website. Your site's full address, starting with https:// (Google).
- Services. If your category offers it, Edit services lets you pick from suggestions (a plumber might see "Install faucet") and add your own, each with a description and price (Google). Keep prices and phone numbers out of the service names themselves: Google rejects those automatically.
- Description. Up to 750 characters on what you offer, what makes you different and how long you've been at it (Google). No links, and no sales or prices: Google's examples of what's not allowed include "Everything on sale, -50%" (Google's guidelines).
- Photos. Your logo, a cover photo, and photos of your storefront, your work and your products (Google). An outside shot helps customers recognize the place. Google asks for JPG or PNG files from 10 KB to 5 MB, in focus and well lit, without heavy filters: "the image should represent reality."
Google reviews every edit before it goes live. That usually takes up to 10 minutes, and sometimes up to 30 days (Google).
Why profiles get suspended, or edits rejected
Google suspends profiles that don't follow its guidelines, and disables any profile whose business it decides doesn't exist where the profile says (Google; policies). The usual causes, from those pages and the guidelines above:
- Extra words in the name: a town, a service, a tagline.
- An address that doesn't qualify, such as a P.O. box or a virtual office.
- More than one profile for the same location.
- A business that isn't eligible, such as an online-only one.
- Fake reviews. Besides removing them, Google can stop a profile from getting new reviews for a while and show customers a warning (Google). My post on getting more Google reviews covers what's allowed.
- A pattern of violations. Google can restrict the account, which suspends every profile on that account (policies).
Edits get rejected too. Google may not approve a change it "can't confirm" (Google), and it may reject big changes to your name or category: it says edits that significantly change the nature of a business "are often fraudulent" (policies). Those changes can also send you back through verification (Google).
If your profile is suspended, don't create a new one; Google says not to (Google). Fix what broke the rules, then use Google's appeals tool, attaching evidence such as a business license or a utility bill with the same name and address as your profile. Google says an appeal can only be submitted once, so gather the evidence first.
If you'd rather hand it off
Everything above is free, and you can do all of it yourself. If someone helps, Google's rules tell them to work directly with you on verification, and to encourage you to "own the Business Profile, and add authorized representatives as managers" (Google).
Every website plan includes on-page SEO, and plans start at $2,400 (see the plans). If you'd rather not set up the profile yourself, add Google Business Profile setup to your website project for $150. It's on the upgrades page with every other add-on; add-ons are confirmed with you before work starts and refundable until it does.
